Birds fly over the Sheikh Zayed Mosque where the “Light and Peace” Museum is taking place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 17 December 2024. The “Light and Peace” Museum at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre showcases scientific, literary, and historical works reflecting Islamic civilization's depth and interactions with world cultures. (Photo by Ali Haider/EPA)





A boy rides a bicycle by a ferris wheel and a Christmas tree set up in the French riviera city of Nice on December 15, 2025. (Photo by Valery Hache/AFP Photo)





A person passes by the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, eastern France, on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Sebastien Bozon/AFP Photo)





The US Capitol is seen in Washington, DC on December 21, 2024. US President Joe Biden signed a funding bill Saturday, the White House said, averting a Christmastime government shutdown after negotiations in Congress went down to the wire overnight. (Photo by USA Today)





Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer is led by Director General Yousif Al Obaidli and tour guide Mahra as he visits the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on December 9, 2024. (Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth/Reuters)





Pedestrians are reflected in a storefront window as they walk near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, Tuesday, December 3, 2024. (Photo by Matias Delacroix/AP Photo)





People take pictures of their reflections in the decorations of a Christmas tree, at a Christmas fair in Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, December 14, 2024. (Photo by Andreea Alexandru/AP Photo)





A line of animals, including rhinos, buffaloes, and springboks, drink from a watering hole at dusk in Zimanga Private Game Reserve, South Africa in the first decade of December 2024. (Photo by Renee Doyle/Solent News)





Students sit in a classroom at a school following an announcement of the reopening of schools by the authorities, after Syria's Bashar al-Assad was ousted, in Damascus, Syria, on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)





Visitors walk in front of the illuminated Christmas tree at Cathedral Square in Vilnius, Lithuania, Monday, December 16, 2024. (Photo by Mindaugas Kulbis/AP Photo)





Senior company members of the Dance Centre Kenya (DCK) prepare backstage as they get their makeup done ahead of their performance in The Nutcracker at the Kenya National Theatre in Nairobi on December 7, 2024. The Nutcracker is a beloved Christmas ballet, first performed in 1892, with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Known for its enchanting score and festive themes, it has become a holiday tradition worldwide. (Photo by Luis Tato/AFP Photo)





A view of Loch Faskally near Pitlochry, Perthshire, taken by PA news agency photographer Jane Barlow, which features on First Minister John Swinney's official Christmas card this year. Picture date: Tuesday December 10, 2024. (Photo by Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images)





The sun sets over the Venetian Court apartments that face Monterey Bay on Capitola Beach on December 1, 2024, in Capitola, Calif. (Photo by Pamela Hassell/AP Photo)





Protesters are reflected on a man's helmet, as farmers march towards New Delhi to press for better crop prices promised to them in 2021, at the Shambhu barrier, a border crossing between Punjab and Haryana states, India, on December 6, 2024. (Photo by Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters)





People enter the metro from Venizelou station in Thessaloniki, Greece, on December 9, 2024. (Photo by Murad Sezer/Reuters)